Sick Candidates Drop Out As DSE Exams Continue

A number of sick students on Saturday dropped out or were stopped from attending the city’s university entrance examinations over health worries as the tests entered the second day amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) Examination has been pushed back from March 27 due to the pandemic.

At the Lions College which was turned into an exam centre, a candidate threw up inside a washroom before the exam. The college’s principal, James Lam, said the student did not have a fever.

“The student said although he felt a little unwell, he wanted to try to take the exam. We set up a transparent partition to separate him from others. He tried to take the exam for a few minutes but decided to leave and see a doctor,” he said.

He left for the hospital himself as the school was unable to contact his parents.

At a school in Fanling, a 17-year-old student was found to have a fever before the exam but his temperature returned to normal after being taken to a hospital. He was tested for coronavirus nevertheless as he had a cough.

The Examination Authority said it had received reports of ten DSE candidates absent because they were sick.

On the other hand, two students were stopped from entering the exam centres as they had a fever or symptoms of respiratory tract infection, while two others left in the middle of the exams as they felt sick.

Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan of the Centre for Health Protection noted the importance of the DSE examination, but she appealed to candidates not to go to the exam centres if they feel unwell.